1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling air introduction apparatus for a vehicle that can efficiently introduce cooling air through an air hole formed in a front member to heat exchangers.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, the front portion of a vehicle such as an automobile is provided with a front bumper, and a front grille is mounted above the front bumper. The front bumper has a bumper face that forms the outer surface of the front bumper, and a bumper beam disposed in the inner surface of the bumper face. The bumper face and the front grille have openings of a lower air introduction port and an upper air introduction port, respectively, and cooling air introduced from both of the air introduction ports is introduced into heat exchangers (such as a radiator for cooling an engine, a condenser for an air-conditioner) disposed in the front portion of the engine compartment and cooled by the heat exchangers.
The bumper beam disposed in the rear surface of the bumper face extends in the vehicle width direction. Between the bumper beam and the heat exchangers, a space is provided for securing at least a crush stroke at the time of a light head-on collision.
The rear surface portions on both sides of the bumper beam are fixed to the ends of front side frames disposed on the right and left sides of the vehicle in the width direction, and crash boxes are provided at the respective ends of the front side frames. When a head-on collision occurs, impact load is transmitted to the front side frames via the bumper beam, and the crash boxes are first axially crushed in a bellows manner so that part of the impact energy is absorbed. The space for a crush stroke between the bumper beam and the heat exchangers, and thus, even when the crash boxes are axially crushed and the bumper beam is forced backward at the time of a light collision, contact of the bumper beam with the heat exchangers can be avoided, thereby protecting the heat exchangers from being damaged.
However, because a space is provided between the bumper beam and the heat exchangers as described above, cooling air taken in through the lower air introduction port provided in the bumper face while the vehicle is running is moved upward in the space formed between the bumper beam and the heat exchangers, and interferes with the cooling air taken in through the upper air introduction port provided in the front grille so that a vortical turbulent flow is generated. The turbulent flow creates an air-flow resistance to the cooling air, and thus the cooling performance of the heat exchangers is reduced.
In order to cope with this problem, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H11-11163 discloses a technology in which the space formed between the bumper and the heat exchangers is partitioned into upper and lower spaces by a plate-like control member (partition member) so as to introduce two streams of cooling air introduced through both of the air introduction ports of the front bumper and the front grille into the heat exchangers without the two streams of cooling air interfering with each other.
However, in the technology disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H11-11163, an rear end of the plate-like control member (partition member) is located close to the front of the heat exchangers, and thus when the bumper beam is forced backward at the time of a light head-on collision, the control member fixed to the bumper beam is forced back together, and the rear end of the control member comes into contact with a heat exchanger, which may be damaged.